Fourteen local women inspire the lyrics to 14 songs

Not everyone gets a song written just for them, about their accomplishments, and performed by the San Diego Master Chorale. But that’s what happened Friday to the Salvation Army’s 2013 Women of Dedication honorees.

Even the blustery winter storm that day didn’t dampen spirits. In fact, the rainy weather was in keeping with the event’s “Garden of Giving” theme and “Help Our Garden Grow” motto. How appropriate that packets of flower seeds were given as table favors.

New brand: Ferragamo is establishing a presence in Escondido. I’m not referring to Salvatore Ferragamo, the Italian maker of fine shoes and purses, but rather Vince Ferragamo, former Super Bowl-playing quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams.

After retiring, he turned to growing grapes on his estate in Orange County and has been eyeing expansion in North County. Meanwhile, he is offering his Tenuta de Ferragamo label with other local wine makers at the Hidden Valley Enoteca tasting room on Belle Marie Winery’s Escondido campus.

Farewell: Real estate entrepreneur Carroll Davis, who cut quite a figure in San Diego in the late 1970s and early 1980s, died last week. Davis was the innovative force behind San Diego’s first Condominium Center, a condo resale and marketing service for area real estate agents. “He specialized in condos before people could even spell condominium,” said Mary Miller, of Bonita, a center executive.

Davis also brought San Diego its first and only Playboy Club in 1981 after starting one in Dallas, Texas. The club was short-lived, however, closing less than a year later as the Playboy bunny era faded.

Davis turned his attention to building the Radisson Hotel in Mission Valley, which went into foreclosure in the S&L debacle in the mid-1980s. He then concentrated on real estate in Hawaii. The former Marine Corps sniper was memorialized at the Miramar National Cemetery last Thursday.

Highwayman: Tom Weller has a hobby of traveling area freeways to help drivers whose cars have broken down. He doesn’t accept payment for his services. Instead he hands travelers a card asking them to pass on the favor. The other day, after a harrowing flat tire change on the Coronado bridge, the appreciative motorist, in turn, offered his thanks to Weller. He reached in his pocket and handed the “highwayman” a gold coin imprinted: “Central Intelligence Agency.”